A KING AMONG ANGLERS. 141 



but the contest for the county, and which he 

 understood would lie between Lord Lowther (the 

 sitting member) and Mr. Brougham. But, to his 

 sore perplexity, he heard the names of new candi- 

 dates, to him hitherto unknown. And on meeting 

 Wilson, he told him with a serious countenance 

 that Lord Lowther would be ousted, for that the 

 struggle, so far as he could learn, would ultimately 

 be between Thomas Ford, of Egremont, and 

 William Richardson, of Caldbeck, men of no 

 landed property, and probably Radicals. This 

 contest was at Carlisle, and had no political com- 

 plexion whatever. 



One of the great resorts of the literary coterie 

 of the Lakes during Wilson's time was the little 

 mountain inn at Wastdale Head, kept by the 

 Tysons. Upon one occasion the Professor pro- 

 posed a sail on Wastwater, and when well into 

 the middle of the tarn he fell overboard. 

 There was great consternation in the boat, 

 and first one and then another made a grab 

 at him, though to the peril of every one in the 

 tub. Wilson could not restrain his laughter, 

 however, as he was pulled aboard, and the 

 rescuers found that one more prank had been 

 played upon them. Old Tyson describes Wilson 

 as a "fine, gay, girt-hearted fellow, as strang as 

 a lion, an' as lish as a troot, an' he hed sic antics 



